Mythic Dances

Open Spaces #3 at the ­Tanzfabrik Berlin is inspired by antiquity

Pierced by the arrows of love, carrying owls to Athens, having an Oedipus complex: everyday language is full of references to ancient myths, those pictorial narratives whose meaning is not so defined as that of concepts. Contemporary dance and its associative dramaturgies seem made for such flexible approaches to meaning. This is quite evident in three works at Open Spaces #3: Kareth Schaffer interprets "Kassandra” as a living archive. In her performative-installative project consisting of language(s), song and dance, truths and lies, alternative pasts, and the potential for the future are all presented in an orbiting encounter. Moritz Majce and Sandra Man are inspired by ancient Narcissus as well as by narcissism as a modern-day phenomenon. Their "­Narkosis” dissolves the mirrored distance between performers and spectators and lures those wallowing in self-confirming media-based rapture into the seclusion of self-forgetfulness. Amor and Psyche offer Felix M. Ott and Bahar Temiz the occasion to perform "M.A.R.S.”, a fusion of two bodies, ranging from tender to brutal, becoming a sexless third.